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Friday night we took the Incredible In-laws and their neighbors, the Wonderful Wickhams to dinner at Cascone's Italian Restaurant. The occasion was the Venerable Dirk's birthday.

Saturday night the same crew (plus our two good girls) went to see March of the Penguins. If you're in the mood for a good, clean film, this could be the one. At the outset, I thought "If this is 90 minutes of penguins walking on ice, it's going to be very boring." It wasn't.

I'm a big fan of penguins, and after seeing the movie, even more so. My favorite penguin quote: If you need to walk on ice, walk like a penguin. They do it all the time.

I made that one up.

In the blog world, I hope to get time to put a little organization on this page by combining my favorite posts in a list.

Well, work calls. More later.

Got up early on the 4th, letting the Wonderful Wife sleep in a little. Went downstairs to blog. The girls came down one at a time, padding the carpeted stairs in their bare feet, all sleepy eyes and pajamas.

WW had bought Pillsbury cinnamon rolls for breakfast, which I took the initiative to prepare.

After a leisurly breakfast and time to get ready, we piled in the SUV and headed out to watch "Herbie: Fully Loaded". It was a hoot. You have to go into a movie like this suspending critical thought and skepticism, or you'll ruin the experience. I went into it just rooting for the punch-buggy in red, white and blue racing stripes and I was not disappointed.

Of course a '63 vw can't beat a new 'vette. Of course it can't take on NASCAR racers. Of course a 20-something mechanic in a broken-down barn can't turn a junker into a street-racer overnight - without capital.

But that's all part of the charm. It's the unbelievable that makes it interesting, I think.

Confession time. I'm a big reader of movie reviews before I go to the flick. I usually read Plugged In and lately, Christianity Today Movies.  Both give a good overview of the wholesomeness of the film, but CT seems more interested in the movie as a movie, while Plugged In focuses more on the faith and morality aspects. Taken together, the two help me decide if this is a film I want to see, or want the kids to see.

Plugged In gave Herbie a good review in much the same way I would - as a fun, relatively clean escapist trip. CT's reviewer seemed to have more of an issue - even knocking down the original Herbie films, which were a fun part of my childhood. I, on the other hand, just liked rooting for the under dog - in spite of the logical fallacies and holes in the plot. Besides, it brought back memories of days gone by.

We took a picnic to the park after the movie, then home so Youngest could nap. Skipped the traffic and bugs for fireworks on TV, where we watched "A Capital Fourth"  on PBS. It's a tradition - at least in those years we don't go to a local display - and I'm always disappointed that you get an hour of music and gab and five minutes of fireworks, with the credits crawling over them like flies on cotton candy.

By chance, we caught the Macy's Fourth of July fireworks from NYC after ACF. Now that was a fireworks display to blog about! If you didn't see it, watch next year's TV listing - you won't want to miss it.

Well, time to grab a bite. Y'all come back now, y'heah?

James Lileks has a very readable take on Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith (SWIII: ROTS - hey, if you're going to make a movie whose dialog is subject to termite infestation, and if the title easily fits a spurgy acronym, you get what's coming to you) [Warning: Contains spoilers and a few PG words]. My personal favorite line was this one:

When you switch to the Dark Side, do you have to go to Sith HR to fill a bunch of forms?

If there is a Sith HR, I can guarantee from experience - THERE ARE FORMS!

A couple of my own observations:

Toward the end of the movie, several main characters - Obi Wan, Darth Sidious, perhaps others, make huge galaxy-crossing space commutes in seconds. Remember Episode 4, when it took hours for the Millenium Falcon - "You never heard of The Millenium Falcon? She's the ship that made the Kessle run in less than 12 parsecs." - THAT Millenium Falcon - to jump from here to there. But hey, as long as you get there, I guess.

Probably my favorite sequence is when Obi Wan pursues General Grievous through the Clone Army lair - Obi Wan on what looked for all the world like a giant sea iguana, Grievous on some sort of high-speed gyroscope. Pretty cool stuff.

I agree with Lileks: Not enough Wookies. The movie would definately have benefited from: 1) More scenes with walking carpets; 2) more walking carpets in the scenes that did have walking carpets. They produced some of the most believable acting.

Also in agreement on Yoda. Probably the best acting in the movie, although Gollum/Smeagol would take the Oscar hands-down if the two were locked in a dead heat for the last gold statue.

We had a little rain last night. Just a half inch in the rain gauge. But it wasn't the rain that put us in the safe spot. It wasn't even the lightning, although it was intense. It wasn't the hail, 'cause we didn't have any. It was the wind. Big wind. Big, big wind. We'd had 10-15 mph breezes all night. Normal stuff for the Windier City. But when the bow echo hit, we went from 10 mph to 80 or 90 mph in a nanosecond. This was the rip-the-limb-off-the-tree-and-throw-it-against-the-side-of-the-house kind of wind. Fortunately, it didn't do any damage.

We've lived in KC for 11 years now, and I've never found pieces of someone elses' roof in my yard until today.

When the wind hit, we were getting the kids ready for bed. We headed for the safe spot like a squirrel heading for higher ground when Rascal dog runs out the back door.

The lights flickered. Not your normal flickering. This was the kind of flickering you see when a candle wants to go out in high wind, except it's one of those gag candles that sparkles and spits and comes back to life. The downed power lines wone the battle after a minute or two, and we were without power from 9:00 pm Wednesday to 3:45 pm Thursday.

I left early for work, figuring I'd pick up some cereal in the cafeteria, and reasoning it might take a little longer due to the storm. The neighborhood was fairly heavily hit. Most every side-street I passed had some limbs down. Some had several large limbs or even half a tree or more. But more about that tomorrow. Also to come, pictures that show just how the weather works in KC. You may not believe your eyes.

Picnic today at work. Catering by Jackstack BBQ (yum). We rented a 25' climbing wall with 3 bungee pods. That was a hoot. The rain cleared overnight, so things weren't too bad. It was hot - upper 80s, and humid, but overall, not unbearable. My forehead looks like I shoved it in the warming oven at Kentucky Fried Chicken and left it there for 2-3 hours. I think the Crayola color is Burnt Umber.

Well, duty calls. WW is home from work. Monarch of the Glen series (the Brit's TV term for what we call a season stateside) 3. More tomorrow.

Today must be my film-blogging day. The Ridley Scott film "Kingdom of Heaven" is scheduled to be released Friday, which will certainly generate much discussion about the Crusades.

For a brief but very insightful look at the issue, check out Josh Clayburn's In the Agora.

I've read lots of quotes from Josh on other blogs, but this is the first time I've been to his site, and I've blogrolled it.

BTW: The movie's rated "R", which means that due to a self-imposed restriction, I probably won't see it uncut. That's life.

I'm wondering if Disney can successfully make "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe" by C.S. Lewis into a major motion picture. Not that they can't do the special effects and so on. I'm not sure if they get it when it comes to the faith aspects.

I think this quote from the USA Today article sums up my reservations:

The tales also are infused with Christian allegory, and the heroic Aslan is meant as a Christ figure, a redeemer who resurrects in triumph. The challenge: to attract the spiritual-minded moviegoer without turning off the secular crowd.

If you're a Narnia fan and can't wait to see the movie -- or even a trailer -- here's your chance:

When the first trailer for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe makes its U.S. premiere Saturday night during ABC's showing of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets— airing at the same time in 30-plus countries — viewers are apt to gaze in wonder. And be taken aback.

I have a confession to make. I've never read the books. We've watched some of the BBC films on video, but I grew up in a home where books like Lewis' fantasy series were not heard of. Oh, I read plenty of fantasy, and Sci-Fi, but I never heard of The Chronicles of Narnia until I became a Christian myself.

I'm looking forward to the movie, and hope it is a success.

On an interesting side note, if you're interested in reading more about C.S. Lewis' life and thought, we just happened to have published two books on the subject. Pardon the shameless-self-serving plug.


C.S. Lewis and the Bright Shadow of Holiness



C.S. Lewis Explores Vice and Virtue